Special Containment Procedures: Due to the properties of the object and its fragility, it is contained in situ within the Vatican City. A team of Foundation archaeologists should inspect it monthly, recording and notifying any alterations or signs of further deterioration.

The area where SCP-ES-142 is located has been restricted under the façade of remodeling and maintenance work. Security in the sector is provided by Foundation agents characterized as members of the Pontifical Swiss Guard in collaboration with members of the local security force. Civilians found in the sector will have to be arrested and interrogated before being handed over to the local authorities.

Unauthorized manipulation will result in disciplinary action against involved.

In case of a Mammon event the activation of the object will be authorized. The personnel present at the site should contact the liaison officer of the Confraternity of Saint George’s Knights or related personnel and wait for instructions and/or the arrival of a representative of the Confraternity. For more details see Document S142.

Description: SCP-ES-142 corresponds to a mechanical device built from silver and human bones with thaumaturgical properties, specifically related to the capacity to repel Class T3 intangible tartaric entities present in a specific area. To date, the technology under which the object was built and the principles associated with its operation are largely unknown.

Laboratory tests performed have determined that its metallic components were constructed from silver with a purity between 90% and 95.8%, of the type usually used in liturgical objects of Christianity, while the osseous components were dated according to Carbon-14 tests between the 5th and 14th centuries AD.

Thaumaturgical testing instruments haved determined that the object presents high levels of Akiva radiation, around 10 times the value corresponding to the baseline, and several times the level found in other objects of devotion1 of Christianity as well as of other religions.2 However, the object has levels of Hume radiation comparable to baseline levels, which would explain the limited effect on the environment around it.

In the inactive state, the device is able to maintain an area equivalent to 1 km2 free of Class T3 or related entities. Its effect on non-tartaric anomalous entities or tartaric Class T1 or higher is unknown.

The records of the Confraternity have concluded that, to date, the object has been activated 3 times; in addition to the incident of 1586, the device was activated once in 1629, during the Italian Plague,3 and again in 1942 in response to actions developed by rival groups to the Confraternity, showing important damages after the latest use that endangered its functionality.

This deterioration, together with the scarce understanding of the technology used during the 16th century for the construction of SCP-ES-142, led the Brotherhood to establish contact with the Foundation, seeking help in repairing the device or in the construction of a device with similar characteristics. For this purpose, along with allowing them access to the object, a copy of the diary of Alonzo Mancini, the subject involved in obtaining the device in 1586, was delivered. (See Addendum)

To date, it has not been possible to achieve any of these objectives.

Addendum: Extract from the diary of Alonzo Mancini, secretary of Cardinal Enzo Lucca.4

Today I met the Devil or at least one of his minions. He did not present himself with horns or other marks of hell, but rather under the appearance of banker Angelo Salvago.5 Of coppery skin, bald and without eyebrows, always with a mocking smile on his face, Salvago was not a pleasant person to see or try, but at the same time he was the only one who wanted to continue doing business with Cardinal Lucca when the others turned their backs on him.

As the Cardinal's secretary, I couldn't blame him for dealing with someone like Salvago- his debts had forced him. He had already given him one of his properties as payment, but the usurious interests did not allow him to pay off what was owed. As the days passed the tone of Salvago had changed from flatterer and flatterer to demanding and brutal, even demanding that the Cardinal steal pieces of the Papal treasure in order to pay his debts. For this reason, we had asked the Pontifical Guard to prohibit him from entering, while trying to get justice to intervene in favor of the Cardinal, without obtaining results because before his eyes it seemed a legitimate business.

For that reason the surprise was not greater when I found Salvago, dressed in luxurious lace and brocade, walking through the corridors of the Pontifical residence. At first, I thought he had bribed the guards to enter, I wanted to recriminate him and ask him to leave, but his gaze stopped me. I told him that the Cardinal was not there, that he was visiting the Lordship of Correggio, but at that moment his smile was erased and he limited himself to telling me, "Dog, go find your master. Let him not forget that to Caesar what is Caesar's."

To my shame I obeyed him. I don't know what kind of incantation he used, but my will was broken. I went to the Cardinal's room, where he was working, and announced the visit. Moments later Salvago arrived, who, in a tone of impatience, told the Cardinal that he would take all the gold and silver from the place and that we were going to help him transport it. Shamefully, the Cardinal took off his rings and crucifix and handed them to Salvago, who looked at them greedily. Moments later he handed him his silver reliquary, the object he loved most because he had inside a splinter of bone from St. Benedict the humble, whom he considered his source of inspiration.

When he took the reliquary, Salvago shouted as if he had been stabbed in the hand. The holy object crackled, and smoke came out of it, moments before the perverse released it. Before our stupor, Salvago cursed us, and fled the room.

Innocently we had thought it was all over, but the facts showed us how wrong we were. That night neither the Cardinal nor I were able to rest, tormented both by a stinking plague of sulfur and rotten flesh coming in from the outside and by the blows and scratches we heard on the outside windows. Dawn, instead of bringing us peace, brought us greater horror, since we discovered the horses dead in the stables, with open bellies and scattered guts, as if ferocious beasts had attacked them. Neither the stable boy, nor the men of the guard, nor the servants saw or heard anything. I thought they were lying, that they were hiding something, but they showed as much fear and disgust as we did when we found ourselves before this macabre spectacle.

The Cardinal didn't know what to do. He denounced Salvago before the Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition, accusing him of heresy and sorcery, but his words fell on deaf ears, simply telling him that there was no proof and that he should pay what was owed.

After several nights of peace, the cacophony returned. Last night they not only disturbed but also vandalized the garden, dawning withered and corrupted plants as if the ground were poisoned. The servants abandoned us and only the guard remained, bound by his oath of service. This convinced the Cardinal to call Brother Donato, a holy man expert in combating the Devil's schemes, to help us.

That night we stayed awake. Our wait only lasted until midnight, at which time the cacophony and pestilence began. Brother Donato then resorted to the weapons the Lord had given him, praying and reciting an exorcism, while pouring holy water into the windows, all of which had little effect.

After several nights of fighting against the darkness, Brother Donato surrendered. He told us that he could not continue his work on the eve of Good Friday; that would be an unforgivable heresy regardless of its purpose. I think it was also because he lost faith in his abilities.

Before leaving us, he gave us a small light of hope, telling us that he would ask Confraternity of Saint George’s Knights to help us.

Although we have gone through various inns along Rome, always traveling in disguise and using false names, our tormentors did not lose sight of us. Night after night the pestilence and cacophony continued, tormenting both us and our roommates and threatening to destroy our sanity and our faith.

Today we meet with the Confraternity's envoy in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmedin. That Donato Bagliani turned out to be a curious man because while we were waiting for a warrior or a pious man, we met a scholar. He listened attentively to our story as he took notes, without expressing a judgment or opinions, and found Salvago's reaction to the relic of St. Benedict especially interesting. Almost by force, the Cardinal handed the small silver container to Bagliani, who promised to return it in a few days.

Today a messenger arrived at our inn, being called to meet at the Church of Santa Maria on Minerva with the envoys of the Confraternity. There was Bagliani with two men we did not know. They explained to us the nature of what we were facing, and that the only thing capable of repelling it were the bones of the Saints, because inside it concentrated the purest and most powerful faith that could be found among men, being only inferior to the present one in the relics left by the Son and his Disciples. Each small fragment could repel our opponents in a limited way, but distributed in a special way could keep the entire Holy Seat free from those evil influences.

Accompanied by one of the Knights of the Confraternity and provided with a Papal Bull, we have begun to tour the kingdoms of the peninsula. We visit every little chapel we find on our way, even in the most humble villages, always looking for relics of the saints we could obtain. I do not deny that I feel bad about what we are doing, practically stealing their beloved relics, even when we leave them gold to compensate them in part for what they give, but all this is for the greater good. According to the letters we have received, our adversary, not being able to reach us, has increased his violence, raging with friends and acquaintances of the Cardinal, the last victim being Bishop Cenci, who was found a few days ago with a horribly lacerated back, near the Filarete Gate.

After two months of traveling through the peninsula, we have returned to Rome. Together with the knights of the Confraternity, we have gathered about thirty relics, most of which were no bigger than the bone of a finger. They told us to keep moving through Rome and that in a week they would have results to show us.

That afternoon we met Bagliani in the former office of the Cardinal, where he showed us one of the most curious artifacts I have ever seen. At first glance it looked like a clock or some mechanical device made of silver, having, however, in the section that was not visible and interspersed with its mechanisms, a series of bone pieces.

The night came in the middle of a tense wait, wondering if all those efforts would have any results. That night we gave free to the guard, in anticipation of an unfavorable scenario. At midnight the demonstration began, with more violence than ever. In the middle of the cacophony, the windows were broken, and the pestilence almost drowned us. Bagliani manipulated the strange artifact, which began to vibrate. I don't know if it was fear or my mind confused by the mephitic vapors that flooded the place, but it seemed to me that the interior of the artifact shone with a bluish light, as if the fire of San Telmo had reached it. We felt a strong pressure in our ears and the cacophony stopped, after which Bagliani manipulated the artifact again. That night we had peace.

Great was our surprise when we found out the morning following Angelo Salvago's disappearance. Moreover, as if the fevers had affected them, not even his neighbors seemed capable of remembering him or his bank. After asking half a dozen times, and fearing that we would be treated like insane, we decided to keep quiet. Sadly that night there were also several disappearances within the Holy City, the most notable being those of the secretaries of Cardinal Trivulzio and of the Bishop Madrusso.

That morning Bagliani examined carefully the artifact, showing disapproval of what he found. Although the silver components were intact, the bone fragments looked somewhat deteriorated, as if they had been thrown into a bonfire. The artifact was brought to the Confraternity for examination, promising to return within three days.

Without ceasing to feel that we were committing a heresy, that night we descended to the grottos near the Tomb of Saint Peter, where, after an improvised masonry work, we installed the artifact in a wall, surrounded by the remains of the saints patriarch of the church. This environment, according to Bagliani, should both amplify its influence and stabilize its components. After teaching me how to use it, he asks me to activate it again only in an exceptional case.

Young women, almost teenagers, with old men. Young men, almost boys, together with older women. In each couple that formed part of the circle, this contrast was observed, as if they were trying to highlight the fact that they were in the extremes of life. It had been hours since the hullabaloo, the banquet and the drink, the shouts and the songs, the offerings and the dance had passed around the great bonfire. Silence is now dominant, interrupted only by the sound of naked bodies intertwined on the grass, moving almost in unison, and the occasional moans of pleasure during climax.

The deer merely observed in silence, as it did every night of the spring equinox, just as it had been time immemorial.

-o-

As the economic crisis and the drought associated with climate change hit the villages around and on the peninsula, Fontana di Cervi seemed immune to external disasters. Their fields and vineyards produced year after year in abundance, their farm animals and cattle were strong and healthy, and their vigorous inhabitants not rarely reached the centenary, despite the difficult
conditions in which they subsisted. The happiness of its inhabitants would have been greater if more children had been born - it was a subject of recurrent conversation of the nonnas when they were in the market or when they left the church, dedicating themselves to openly criticizing the younger women for their lack of offspring - but it seemed that the prodigious fertility of their cows and goats could not reach the people. They knew that they were better off than most of the villages in Cerdeña, but they did not lose sight of the fact that many of them were getting old and that, although unlike other places young people did not leave the place where they were born, they would soon be forced to accept strangers, first as workers and then as inhabitants, which would disturb the tranquility and their way of life.

-o-

It was a series of apparently unrelated events that led to the Confraternity of Saint George’s Knights to take action. First, the father Giovanni, who had served in the small church of Di Santa Purezza for more than six decades, and who, afflicted by early symptoms of Alzheimer's disease had agreed to retire, had died while sleeping a few days before moving to the capital. Sometime later, his replacement, Father Valentino Pellegrino, had asked to leave the priesthood after occupying his position for only one year to dedicate himself to being a farmer in the region. And while in the capital they were pondering to send a deacon to take charge of that orphan sacristy, the church had been seriously damaged as a result of a fire, losing all its roof and part of its structure.

For this reason, Piero Moretti was driving to Fontana di Cervi on that cold January afternoon. He hoped that his Fiat Punto would not attract too much attention and that unless asked directly he would only be taken by a tourist who had decided to bring his holidays forward. Because Di Santa Purezza was not only a church about 500 years old but also the place where a relic of Saint Martha the Shepherdess was kept, being its duty as a representative of the Confraternity to find out the destiny of the holy object and to try to recover it.

-o-

After staying overnight in a rustic inn, the only place in town with lodging for tourists, Moretti began his inquiries early in the day. Fontana di Cervi was the typical agricultural village like so many others that abound on the peninsula, places in many respects abandoned by progress, and whose lifestyle seemed to have not changed in centuries. At that time there were few inhabitants, mainly women and the elderly, as most of its inhabitants were working in the surrounding fields. He walked to the town hall, a rustic building of wood and stone, to ask about Di Santa Purezza.

According to his previous research, the inhabitants of that region came from the Sardinians, a proud people who had occupied the region since time immemorial. Although they had received cultural influences from the Phoenicians, the Romans, and the Byzantines, and had later embraced Christianity, they struggled to maintain their legacy, preserving and restoring structures such as the nuraga11 that he had seen in the boundaries of the village, in addition to preserving archaeological pieces found in the fields and forests for their own use, rarely giving them to museums in other regions.

Lost in thought, he found himself in the lobby of the city hall with a black stone statue, about fifty centimeters high on a wooden support. The statue had a humanoid body, with sexual characteristics both female and male, being, in general, an unrealistic conventional representation that tended to voluptuousness, although the feature that most caught his attention was his head, which represented a deer's head. The whole caused him a certain discomfort and sensation of modesty, confusing when experienced together.

- Beautiful, isn't it? - said a voice behind his back.

- It is curious, it reminds me of the Venus of Willendorf. What have the archaeologists said? - Moretti asked.

The man next to him smiled and introduced himself as Filippo Abis, mayor of Fontana di Cervi.

- Archaeologists have not seen it, although I must suppose that in every village on the island there must be an equal one, Italy has always been rich in archaeological objects. You come as a tourist, don't you? I hope you do not come to hunt deer, there have been few this year and we do not want them to disappear.

- No, my interest is the history. Magnificent nuraga they have, I have seen many others but none so well preserved. Although my main interest is for the church Di Santa Purezza - replied Moretti.
With a sad expression and shaking his head Abis said:

- If you were interested in knowing it, I regret to inform you that it was destroyed a couple of months ago by a fire and that we still cannot begin its reconstruction. We have waited for resources to be sent to us from Rome, but our request has not been answered. Now we can only meet on Sundays in the square to read the scriptures. If Father Giovanni were alive…

- I think your prayers have been heard - replied Moretti with a smile. - I' m a representant of an insurance company in Rome, and I need to visit Di Santa Purezza to make an assessment of the damage and a budget for its repair. I give you my word that I will do everything I can to ensure that the building can be repaired soon.

-o-

After warmly thanking his companion for his good disposition, Moretti waved him goodbye, as he needed tranquility for what he was about to do. After taking notes and photographs of both the inside and outside of the church for half an hour, and making sure no one was watching, he went inside. The building had been badly damaged by the fire, losing all the roof and many of its benches and other wooden objects, but the stone walls had withstood well. Following the instructions given to him in Rome, he began to feel the lower part of the altar until part of a slab sank, after which he pushed it diagonally, displacing it. With a flashlight he illuminated the inside of the small niche, probing again until a stone moved. Using the blade of his Swiss Army knife as a lever, he moved the rock, finding a bundle wrapped in an ancient burlap cloth, which after a quick check, confirmed that it corresponded to the object of his search.

-o-

Due to the state of the roads and the few hours of light remained, he decided to tolerate the discomfort of the inn he was staying in for another night. He did so partly to avoid raising suspicions (who would travel hundreds of kilometers from the capital to a town in the middle of nowhere to leave the next day?) and partly out of curiosity. Because, in spite of its rusticity and poverty, the place had caught his attention. Although the inhabitants were not particularly friendly and it was noticeable that they did not like strangers very much, especially the older ones, they were not openly hostile and so far had not been issued insults or rude comments.

The next morning he drove around in his car. In addition to the nuraga he had seen near the entrance to the village, he found three other nuragas of lesser height, causing him discomfort at the sight of scratches on their walls, mainly representations with the greater or lesser talent of deer, as well as on several walls of the village houses. There were also burned areas of the ground nearby, as if they had made bonfires, not knowing how to explain the inhabitants of the surroundings the causes of these marks. He walked through the woods, enjoying the beauty of its ancient trees and the tranquility of the place. After returning to the village and having lunch, he said goodbye to Abis, thanking him for his hospitality and good disposition, before embarking on his return journey to the capital.

-o-

After returning to Rome, Moretti delivered the recovered object, which corresponded to three phalanges and part of a wheat spigot, to his superiors. This relic was later classified as R8942-CSSG and stored in Sector 5 of the Vatican archives. After a couple of days of rest, Moretti returned to his usual work, while waiting for the next assignment from the Confraternity.

-o-

That spring equinox the dances and prayers were both in thanksgiving for the blessings received and to ask for forgiveness for not being able to openly show their faith. Among the dancers of that year was Piero Moretti, who with his heart filled with desire for Mother Deer sang praises to the only goddess he could adore.

1. Corresponding to 3-5 times the levels of Akiva radiation found in well-known relics and more than 7 times the levels recorded in minor devotional objects.

2. As reliquaries, devotionaries, antique copies of the Bible, the Talmud and the Koran, religious statuettes among others

3. The Italian plague, or great plague of Milan, was a series of outbreaks of bubonic plague that affected the main cities of northern and central Italy between 1629 and 1631, marginally affecting the outskirts of Rome in 1633. Recent studies have allowed establishing the hypothesis that this outbreak, unlike the epidemic of the 14th century, would have been of anomalous origin, being the thaumaturgical activity present in the Vatican what prevented its propagation to Rome.

11. A nuraga is the main type of megalithic building that can be found in Cerdeña, being recognized as a characteristic symbol of the region. It corresponds to a structure in the form of a conical tower built of stones that are supported with their own weight.